Cursed Necklace
by QueranAislinn
Summary: AU. Where Hermione takes to a game-like world with a bit more fevour than expected. Set in DH. Mentions of violence. Some language.


"Are you sure, Harry?" Hermione asked anxiously, glancing down at the necklace that lay half-wrapped in the dull brown wrapping.

"It's just a hunch, but we don't really have much else to go on."

Harry looked anxiously between Hermione and the necklace. He knew that if Hermione had any arguments against it, neither of them would touch the necklace and whatever magic the necklace had would remain untouched until someone else found it.

That was the reason they had looked for the necklace in the first place. They had followed the rumours of a magical that would help them defeat Voldemort. It had taken several months of research, time they coud otherwise have used searching for the horcruxes, while Voldemort continued to wreck havoc within the Ministry.

Hermione bit her lip in frustration. "Not even trying it would mean we just lost several months we could have spent more usefully. Well, we're Gryffindors aren't we? Time to do something potentially stupid."

Harry shot Hermione a smile as he heard her sigh, then begin muttering under her breath. Of course Hermione would think of it that way.

If it were Ron, Harry paused, not wanting to go any further with that thought. Ron had left them behind some time ago. It was just Hermione and him now. They were the ones left to find the remainder of the horcruxes themselves.

It would have been notice, though-No, Ron was no longer with them, and it was unlikely that he would find them again.

Hermione nodded decisively, whatever decision she had made obviously pleasing her.

"Harry, we'll have to both touch the necklace at exactly the same time just in case it whisks us off somewhere immediately. The effect of the necklace could be anything, and the curse may or may not be true."

The necklace was rumoured to have a curse on it, but every detection spell they tried showed no result of there ever being a curse. Harry had simply assumed that the rumour was made up to stop people from searching for the necklace, but apparently the rumour was still bothering Hermione a little bit.

Harry frowned, "Are you sure you want to do this, Hermione? If you're unsure, I can do it myself, or we could simply not touch the necklace at all."

Hermione sent Harry a grateful smile but shook her head.

"We're in this together, Harry. I'm not going to make you do this alone just because I'm afraid of the possible consequences."

Hermione took a deep breath.

They reached for the necklace at the same time, and everything went black.

- cursednecklacecursednecklacecursednecklace -

Harry opened his eyes. For once, he wasn't groggy when he woke. It was like he had simply switched from sleep to alertness without the middle phase of waking up.

Shrugging, he sat up from his position on the floor. Everything looked clearer somehow, and less real. Harry didn't bother wondering about that, Hermione was the one who wondered about the whys of strange things, he had always just gone with it.

Harry spotted Hermione still lying on the floor not too far away. He winced at her painful-looking position for a moment, before deciding to move her into a more comfortable position, or the makeshift bed if possible. Harry had never been particularly strong physically though, so the latter was unlikely.

Dragging Hermione turned out to be a feat within his physical limits, but just barely. Settling Hermione on the bed, Harry wondered how long it would take for her to wake up.

A small beeping noise startled him. Grabbing his wand, Harry searched for the source of the sound and found a little block had popped up in front of him.

[Strength has increased by 1]

Harry frowned, poking the block only to find that it was fairly solid but his finger could still go through if he used some force. Harry wondered why this mysterious "strength" would be improving, not that it was a bad thing, but it had never happened before.

Harry wondered if that was an effect of the necklace.

Hermione sat up a moment later, hitting her head on the low bed that was above her. Harry winced at the dull thud.

"What in Merlin's name is 'pain endurance' supposed to be?" Harry heads Hermione mutter a moment later.

"Hermione? I'm assuming you also got a weird message too, even though I can't really see it?"

"Weird message?" Hermione asked.

"I got a message saying something about 'Strength' increasing by one."

Hermione frowned, eyebrows knitting together as she thought.

"The only thing vaguely similar to the kind of messages we've received is something I've only seen on a few computer games. Uh, a computer is-"

"I know what a computer is, Hermione, I grew up in the muggle world too."

"Ah, right. I'm just so used to-anyway, I'm not sure if your familiar with the typical style of this game since I doubt your relatives would have been too happy with you playing games, but you basically have an avatar that you level up to defeat enemies," Hermione said glancing at Harry. "I'm assuming that The Dark Lord would be something like the main enemy or something. I'm not too familiar with the entire thing."

"So we're basically been transported into a game?"

"Basically, yes. Well, at least we probably have the possibility of trying again, if we fail and being resurrected if we die," Hermione said, at seeing Harry's dumbfounded expression.

"I don't think I want to test that theory just yet," Harry muttered just barely loud enough for Hermione to hear.

Hermione nodded. "Neither do I, but I think it might be a good thing to keep in mind."

- cursednecklacecursednecklacecursednecklace -

Harry doubted he had ever seen Hermione let lose as much as she now did. The possibility of starting over, and the seemingly lack of ability for either of them to die seemed to do something to wipe away Hermione's doubts and self control.

Hermione was the one actively seeking out "quests" and gaining lots of "experience" while Harry was the one who simply tagged along with everything Hermione did. Harry wondered what Ron would have said if he ever saw Hermione behaving the way she did now.

Harry was starting to feel extremely glad that Hermione was on his side of the war and not Voldemort's. At this point Harry could swear Hermione would willingly take Voldemort on in a duel by herself if it came down to it.

Hermione's "stats" would have been as far away from Harry's as her Hogwarts marks were from his had she not been dragging him around with her to ensure he was as well equipped as she was.

Harry had to admit, Hermione was absolutely brilliant. If real life had been like this game life, Hermione would definitely be the one who would defeat Voldemort.

"Harry, there's a bunch of wolves up ahead. We should be able to level most of our stats if we defeat them."

Harry groaned, wishing he could use being tired as an excuse not to hunt those wolves, but Hermione knew he didn't get tired too often so that argument was moot against her.

"I'm coming, Hermione," Harry called, grabbing his wand off a nearby counter.

Everything had become much easier, but they hadn't come into contact with any witches and wizards in some time so there was no way they could determine how they would fare.

It was probably only a matter of time before they did.

"At this point I'm sure you'd probably be able to defeat Voldemort all on your own," Harry joked, as Hermione's eyes scoured the surrounding area for anything else they could kill.

"Well-"

Whatever Hermione was about to say was interrupted by the somewhat familiar pops and the arrival of several people in black robes.

"Death Eaters," Hermione groaned, before her eyes lit up, "maybe we can see how well we fare against them?"

Hermione reached for her wand.

"Look, two little children wandering the forest. Drop your wands, or we'll be forced to hurt you."

Harry was only vaguely surprised that they didn't recognise him anymore. His scar wasn't particularly visible, but neither was it hidden. Had he changed, or was it simply an effect of the necklace?

Casually brushing his fringe out of his face, Harry allowed the Death Eaters a glimpse of his scar and their stances changed immediately.

"It's Potter! Get him!"

"Harry! Did you have to do that?"

"Sorry Hermione, I just wanted to know if anything else had changed."

Hermione shook her head as spells flew from her wand, and Harry immediately followed suit.

It was immediately noticeable that the level of the Death Eaters far surpassed everything they had fought before. It didn't mean that Hermione and Harry weren't skilled enough, their duelling styles had to simply undergo a rapid adjustment to add a couple of shield charms to their usually offensive repertoire.

The Death Eaters' eyes widened as their group was picked off member by member. They had obviously not expected such a difficult time capturing the two.

"Well, that was fun," Hermione said, stunning the last Death Eater without a backward glance. "I think we need to practice more one-on-one duels though, so we can practice adapting quickly."

Harry sighed, before reluctantly nodding in agreement.

- cursednecklacecursednecklacecursednecklace -

Harry and Hermione had finally decided to return to Hogwarts, several unexpected quests later, in time for what seemed to be a battle.

The entire "respawn" idea had been tested by Harry and Hermione when they met Nagini and the Dragon during two of their quests. They merely returned to the point where they had first touched the necklace with a decreased amount of "experience."

"Harry?" Hermione asked, a frighteningly calm expression on her face. "Do you want to find him or let him find us?"

"We have the Marauder's Map, so we can see if he is in Hogwarts. I think we might as well find him and finish this," Harry shrugged. "I don't think it matters too much anyway."

"Right," Hermione nodded. "Given that Hogwarts is swarming with people against him, I doubt he's going to be within the castle."

"But, he'll probably be somewhere nearby to ensure he can enter Hogwarts grounds whenever he wishes."

"Exactly, I don't think he's going to be hiding in Honeydukes cellar."

"Shrieking Shack?"

Hermione nodded. "Probably our best bet."

"Harry! Hermione! Blimey, I thought I'd never see you two again!" Ron's voice called out from behind them.

"Well, you were the one who walked out on us..."

"I'm sorry about that. I regretted it the minute I left, but it was already too late by then," Ron told them looking embarrassed. "So, what's the plan?"

"We're going to find Voldemort, and defeat him," Hermione said without hesitation.

"Find him?! Are you completely mental? You'll die!" Ron gaped at Hermione, before turning to Harry, "Mate, please tell me you aren't going along with her completely mental plan?"

"It's the best plan we've got."

Ron gaped. "Fine. I'm coming with you, and if I die I'm going to haunt the two of you for the rest of your lives."

"You don't have to come, Ronald. We'll manage well enough."

"No, I'm not going to abandon the two of you again."

- cursednecklacecursednecklacecursednecklace -

"Ronald!" Hermione screamed as he took the deathly green curse for her. Hermione knew he probably wouldn't survive the curse like she would have. It would only have been a small matter for her to apparatus back and continue duelling. Ron hadn't known that though.

While Harry and Hermione's skills had improved, Ron's hadn't and he had made their plan a bit more complicated. They hadn't wanted him to die though.

Hermione growled, waving her wand furiously and tossing the Death Eaters in front of her to the side before reaching the on who cast the curse.

"You!"

Harry thought he heard something splattering on the floor but wasn't able to think too much of it as he was currently duelling one of the more skilled Death Eaters, with Voldemort approaching in his periphery.

"Hermione, some help please?"

"With pleasure," Hermione all but growled.

"Haha! A petty little girl like you isn't going to-"

"Hermione, that's Voldemort!"

"Good, then it's the bastard that started all of this!"

"-defeat me?" Voldemort's mocking ended up sounding like a question as a knife embedded itself into his back, followed by several other knives that looked like something Harry had seen in the Great Hall during meal times.

"I told you you would probably end up being the one to kill him."

"Sorry, Harry. I got a bit mad."

**Written for The Test Challenge - test 1: write about two main characters touching a cursed necklace **

**Inspired by 'The Gamer.'**


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